With the UK once again facing the prospect of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit, UK-based cryptocurrency data and wallet provider Blockchain.com has added a British pound sterling gateway to its crypto exchange, The Pit.

The new gateway enables UK users to purchase cryptocurrencies directly using British pounds, via the UK’s Fast Payments Scheme, which provides near-instant transaction settlement times for payments between participating British banks.

Traumatic Brexit now unstoppable

With Boris Johnson’s shock ‘landslide’ election victory (despite the fact that he lost the popular vote – one of the distinctly undemocratic qualities of the British ‘first past the post’ voting system), and after the cull of moderate Conservative MPs during the battles to stop a ‘No deal’ Brexit during the course of 2019, there is now no realistic way of stopping Brexit (read more).

Indeed, given the extremist and populist nature of Johnson’s government, the Brexit now on the cards is likely to be extremely traumatic economically, and may well lead to the disintegration of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Scottish National Party, which now dominates Holyrood is already pushing for a second independence referendum, despite Johnson’s government outright forbidding it. And, a return to open conflict in Northern Ireland was always likely if Brexit went ahead and a ‘hard border’ with the republic returned.

Brits flee to safe haven cryptocurrencies

Given this economic, geopolitical and social uncertainty, which is unprecedented in the peacetime history of the UK, it is unsurprising that crypto exchanges are reporting increasing business from nervous Brits looking for ways to hedge their bets and protect their wealth from the inevitably dire Brexit fallout.

Though the British retreat to the perceived safety of cryptocurrencies has only just begun, Hong Kong, Argentina and Venezuela have already set precedents over the last year, as people realise they don’t have to leave their hard-earned assets exposed to the utterly suicidal policies of incompetent or extremist politicians.

People may be distracted with Christmas festivities right now, but with Brexit expected as early as 31^st January 2020, we can expect the British flight to cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin (BTC), to increase significantly in the new year.

This article features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Malta-based Binance, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, has made a strategic investment in crypto derivatives exchange FTX.

According to an official statement, Binance has made an equity investment in FTX and is taking a long-term position in the FTX Token (FTT) – the exchange’s native asset.

FTX now worth “hundreds of millions”

Though Binance hasn’t disclosed the sums involved in the deal, FTX’s founder and head of its affiliate Alameda Research, Sam Bankman-Fried, told Bloomberg the deal was worth “tens of millions” – which he went on to say implied FTX was now valued in the “hundreds of millions of dollars.”

FTX was founded in early 2019 and provides professional derivative trading products. These include quarterly and perpetual contracts on various digital assets, leverage tokens and over-the-counter (OTC) services.

Binance builds out liquidity and institutional product offering

Binance says its aim is to drive sustainable growth in FTX’s ecosystem, which its claims already processes almost half-a-billion dollars in daily traded volume – making it the world’s seventh largest Bitcoin futures exchange according to analytics provider Skew (Binance itself is currently fourth largest).

The partnership will also help Binance build out the liquidity and institutional product offering across its ecosystem, including its exchange (Binance.com) and over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk. The Binance and FTX teams are also collaborating on product development.

Discussing the news Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), said:

“The FTX team has built an innovative crypto trading platform with stunning growth. With their backgrounds as professional traders, we see quite a bit ourselves in the FTX team and believe in their potential in becoming a major player in the crypto derivatives markets.

“We are pleased to have an excellent partner joining the Binance ecosystem and aim to grow the crypto market together.”

While Founder and CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, added:

“Binance is a market leader which has strong synergy with derivatives platforms, and we appreciate their global industry leadership, consistent execution and innovation.

“The investment will help accelerate the growth of FTX with support and strategic advisory from Binance while FTX maintains its independent operations.”

AYO.NEWS says:

FTX’s growth in 2019 has been truly phenomenal, having only launched in spring! That success and this partnership is an indication of the increasing importance of the institutional sector in the cryptocurrency space, as the initial retail driven hype subsides, the entire industry matures and stability very slowly starts to assert itself.

Staying with Binance, just last week AYO.NEWS reported the company had launched LATAMEX, a fiat gateway for Argentina and Brazil (read more).

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Zurich-based sports technology boutique Blocksport has announced a partnership with Paris-based esports data provider PandaScore.

The partnership will see PandaScore supply Blocksport with its range of live AI-based esports data, statistics and analytical services, to help Blocksport develop and launch esports-focused mobile apps.

Discussing the news CEO pf PandaScore, Flavien Guillocheau, said:

“Blocksport’s mobile app is bridging the gap between fans, sponsors and esports teams. It brings you everything in one hand. We believe in Blocksport – it’s the perfect way for us to deliver the esports data that fans truly deserve.”

While Co-founder of Blocksport, Semih Kaçan, added:

“The partnership with such an innovative data provider strengthens our social sports ecosystem significantly. We are looking forward to a successful partnership with PandaScore.”

PandaScore currently provides data covering League of Legends, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and says it will be adding support for Rocket League soon.

AYO.NEWS says:

Esports generates huge amounts of real-time data, which can easily overwhelm and make for messy, clunky platforms and services, so having access to effective AI-based analytics and data services is critical to those developers looking to build apps that will deliver real-world value to esports fans.

Staying with PandaScore, in September we reported the company had entered a strategic partnership with UK-based multimedia news agency PA Media (read more).

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

EY, the giant UK-based auditing firm, has released a new version of its zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) blockchain.

The company says its third-generation ZKP blockchain, which enables data to be distributed between two parties without the need for passwords or associated information, is designed to cut transaction costs by 90%.

Released to the public domain on the Ethereum blockchain, EY says the latest iteration of its blockchain, which can batch combine up to 20 private transfers in a single transaction, and reduces the size of on-chain Merkle trees, will make private transactions on public blockchains more scalable and efficient, reducing transaction costs to just $0.05.

Already available on GitHub, EY says the new version represents a massive 400-fold improvement over its first blockchain prototype unveiled back in October 2018.

Commenting on the released EY global blockchain leader, Paul Brody, said:

“This technology is perhaps the most important EY blockchain milestone in making public blockchains scalable for the enterprise. In the prior iteration released in April 2019, public blockchains were already getting competitive with private networks. With this iteration, we cut the cost per transaction by more than 90% again, making private transactions more accessible for mainstream business application.”

Only yesterday, EY revealed it is almost ready to launch its smart contract and token testing service in beta, with a public beta of the initial version now available for users to review.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reached a settlement with Blockchain of Things Inc. (BCOT) for conducting an unregistered initial coin offering (ICO).

Under the terms of the settlement the New York-based startup, which has not admitted or denied the SEC’s findings, will be subject to an order requiring it to cease and desist from violating the registration provisions of federal securities laws, and will have to cough up a $250,000 penalty.

Furthermore, BCOT will have to return the almost $13 million of funds it raised during the illegal ICO to any investors who request a return of the funds. The company will also be required to registered its tokens as securities and file the appropriate periodic reports with the SEC.

Blockchain of Things Inc, ran the initial coin offering to raise funds to develop and implement a blockchain-based platform that would enable third-party developers to create application for messaging, digital asset generation, and digital asset transfer.

Explaining the SEC’s actions, Associate Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Carolyn M. Welshhans, said:

“BCOT did not provide ICO investors with the information they were entitled to receive in connection with a securities offering. We will continue to consider appropriate remedies, such as those in today’s order, to provide investors with compensation and required information and to provide companies who conducted unregistered offerings with an opportunity to move forward in compliance with the federal securities laws.”

While, CEO of Blockchain of Things, Mr De Castro, added:

“This resolution with the SEC gives Blockchain of Things the path forward to full compliance with the U.S. securities laws and clears the way for Blockchain of Things to pursue its continued vision of bringing to industry, a cost saving, easy to use, powerful blockchain integration technology. Blockchain of Things is thankful that the BCOT token is included in today’s action by the SEC and that we are thereby being given the opportunity to continue to deliver our innovative second layer technology while continuing to participate in the ever-evolving blockchain application space.

“We believe many purchasers of BCOT tokens share our vision of revolutionizing the way business is conducted through blockchain technology, and this action today is an important step in solidifying our compliance and further developing our state-of-the-art 2nd layer Catenis technology platform targeted towards enterprises, entrepreneurs, and developers alike.”

AYO.NEWS says:

Though many would argue the US SECs is being too heavy-handed when it comes to ICOs, it’s good to see it is at least willing to reach settlements with companies that breached laws in a non-malicious way, and offer them a way forward towards compliant operations.

Staying with the SEC and ICOs, just last week we reported that Eran Eyal, founder and former CEO of Shopin, had been convicted of orchestrating a fraudulent ICO after pleading guilty to charges in New York (read more).

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.

Kraken, the popular San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange, has acquired Circle’s over-the-counter (OTC) desk.

Confirming the acquisition in an official blog post yesterday, Kraken said it had acquired “one of the most recognized OTC desks in crypto”, while Sean Neville and Jeremy Allaire, co-founders of Circle, confirmed the company had sold Circle Trade OTC to Kraken.

Kraken said the acquisitions will “significantly bolster” its OTC services, which are run by Wall Street veteran Nelson Minier, allowing it to find new trading partners around the world, particularly in Asia, offer deeper liquidity and tighter spreads across all supported assets, and improve automation and provide more advanced tools for traders.

In a statement Neville and Allaire said they had every confidence that customers would continue to find best-in-class OTC liquidity and responsiveness through Kraken, and that Circle Trade was one of the industry’s “enormous” successes.

Apparently, the sale of Circle’s OTC desk is part of its “sharpened 2020 product roadmap”, which will see the company reduce the complexity of its product portfolio, reorganise its teams, and shift its focus to its stablecoin, the USD Coin (USDC). So far this month, the reorganisation has resulted in about 10 layoffs.

As AYO.NEWS reported a couple of weeks ago, Neville is set to step down as co-CEO in January, but will remain with the company, joining its board of directors (read more).

AYO.NEWS says:

Circle certainly has some major changes planned for 2020, as it seeks to capitalise on the rapidly growing use of stablecoins, so it makes a lot of sense to simplify its portfolio and streamline operations now.

Recently crypto exchange Poloniex, which Circle acquired in 2018, was also offloaded – in large part to ease pressures from US regulators. The exchange, which was acquired by a newly set-up company, then promptly itself acquired TRXMarket, the Tron (TRX) network’s largest decentralised exchange (read more).

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.